What we love…

bright colorful graphics, great way to explain an airport to children who may never have been to one before

What we’d love to see…

mini games to be a bit more in depth and provide a view of the inside of the airplane, ability to dress the characters

Summary

This app is a great way to tell your children about the airport and ease fears, especially if they have never flown.

Dr. Panda Airport by Dr. Panda is the newest addition to the Dr. Panda lineup and features the familiar characters. This time they are on an airport adventure featuring ten activities including: going through security, checking in at the desk, driving the luggage cart, getting your bags via baggage claim, controlling airspace via the control tower, counting money for a payphone and making a phone call, stamping tickets, cleaning the airplane. loading the flight with luggage and going to lost and found. The app is designed for children in preschool and older through elementary school. It practices skills such as fine motor, sorting, counting, finding a specific object, expressive language. shape recognition and matching, and more. The four main characters in the app are a monkey, elephant, raccoon and a hippopotamus who are all attired in different types of vacation clothing.

One of our favorite things in the app was finding the “secrets” in the airport. The graphics were beautiful and the game is simple enough to play without the need for spoken instructions and is frustration free for the youngest of users. This app would be great for a family who might be traveling in the near future and wants to explain how an airport works. It serves as both a social story as well as an explanation of what a child might encounter at the airport. The animations in the app are fantastic and encourage children to play. My son was very interested by the pay phone and having to count the money into to make a call as he had not really seen a payphone in real life. When going through security – he wanted to know why the animals didn’t always have to put objects into the bowl like the razor pictured in the video below. It was interesting though – that only two animals seemed to set off the detector and it was not as random as I would have expected.

In terms of future enhancements – I’d love to see the ability to dress the characters based upon their destination as well as the ability for different activities to be expanded. For example, it would be nice if during the cleaning of the airplane – if the cleaning were of both the inside of the airplane as well as the outside. I’d also like to see a mini game which involves finding your seat, buckling your seatbelt and the actual takeoff of an airplane. The lost and found game may be overwhelming for younger children, although my son who is five really enjoyed it. My final suggestion would to be seeing more of Dr. Panda in the app perhaps as a character the next time rather than just being on the sidelines. My son always wants to play with him and can’t understand why he can’t interact with him during the games.

<small><strong>NOTE:</strong> A fee was received to expedite this review to the top of our waiting list but this payment has not influenced the objectivity of the review and all opinions have been offered honestly.</small>

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2qdYqrC5hg’]

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Meet the iMums

The iMums - Amanda, Alison, Mary and Grace - are four mothers from different parts of the world dedicated to informing parents about the best digital stories, educational apps, fun games and technology products available for their children. We also offer the latest news in apps for kids, interesting articles, developer interviews, free apps and regular giveaways! Read more.

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